foam filler

General Discussion
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Board in for ding repair. Polyester / polyurethane rescue board. Really nasty whack to the deck, delam too. Cut the 'glass off, pulled the mangledness away… have a ~1.5" deep sort of bowl shaped hole in the foam, spread out about 3 inches. So I mixed up some vinylester slow, wet the foam, mixed a bunch of microballoons and a bit of chopped glass, some pigment, filled it in… it went off and it’s all happy and stuff. But now I’m looking at this, and it’s hard. Really hard. Right where it’s going to get kneeled on. Then there’s foam right next to it. And I just know it’s going to crack whatever glass I put over it, right at the edge of the filler.

So… thinking about yanking that out and refilling with Great Stuff, shaping it, then glassing so there won’t be a hard spot for the glass to go lever off of. No chunks of Clark foam handy. Anyone tried this? Maybe pass on the Great Stuff, get some 2 lb density 2 part pour foam? Pretty it does not need to be. I’m going to put a 3/8" EVA foam deck pad on it.

Doc, I’m being over run! Sold that 7’0" G&S for $400 last week.

2

I’ve never tried “great stuff” but I’ve used other brands of expanding faom in a can, peronally I hate the stuff, though having said that I’ve seen some guys use it with reall skill (even using it to make fins!) but every time I’ve used it I’ve all ways got in a right mess and is discolours quick.

I perfer using cut to fit foam chunks, I’ve even bought blanks that are damaged of factory seconds for about $14, and then have a supply of foam for repairs that lasts ages.

That foam expansands soooo much as well so you need to mask the surrounding and be careful not to use too much or you have a big job cleaning up the the excess, what you could do is tace the shape and size of the ding and spray ther foam seperatley and ther sand/cut it to fit and then use a res mix to hold it in place.

can you post some before and after pics of the repair job

3

Hi Patrick -

This might be a ‘don’t raise the bridge, lower the river’ deal. That is, instead of going for more flexy foam, go for stiffer glass so that it’ll flex less and all together, without bending at the transition from filler to foam. Say, 2 or 3 layers of 10 oz, well squeegeed, over the whole deck pad area. The alternative might be routing out the area and inlaying sheet foam, but I dunno if that’s gonna be all that much better. Overall, the foam underneath the filler should compress some too, so it’s gonna have an effect on how the whole thing acts together.

By the way, I like the xmas tree bases on the bottoms of your ding stands - nice approach to that problem and heaven knows the swap shops are full of them. Do you find that they are stable enough?

And, in the edgeboard/kneeboard discussion, there was a discussion of polyester laminating fabrics from a company that also carries rubber/neoprene, suitable for deck pads ( http://www.johnrsweet.com/Minicel.html ) - the prices are pretty reasonable. Wish I had known about them before.

hope that’s of use

doc…

4

Hola,

I like to use PUfoam cans when filling deep but slim holes or snap board gaps, since I can fit the plastic tube into the hole.

But when you have a smooth but wide “valley” on the foam, something like “2 part urethane foam kit” is needed. Since PUfoam tends to expand to the easy direction (up), it’s difficult to make it expand to the sides. Maybe with a drilled cover and filling trough the drills using a PUfoam can…???

I tried to fill this “valley” on my longboard with that kind of cans and failed: I just got some “sausages” of PUfoam, that didn’t bond to each other and even didn’t bond to the old foam.

www.boardlady.com uses “2 part urethane foam kits” for filling delam areas.

Injection

Soft deck

Snap

UScomposites sells this (if I could just buy this thing in Spain…):



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I like the book end lamps on the speakers…nice touch. Get a couch and a small fridge for the beer.

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I’ve used the US Composites “Pour Foam” in the 2 lb density. Had a LB restoration where the entire deck was completely delam’d. Cut out deck as a sheet, routered out the old foam (what was left of it) 1/2" down, mixed and spread a layer of the pour foam in the opening. It foams up and you plane it down. Laminated a very wet layer of 8 oz cloth over and replaced the deck piece. Laminated 4 oz around the cuts. Try and contact US Composites and see if they’ll ship to Europe or if they have a dealer there. The stuff in the aerosol cans is way too soft. Also, the surface of pour foam is full of holes from the foaming process; you’ll need to fill it if there’s cosmetics involved.

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Allow me to offer a different view of the shop. :slight_smile:

You can’t see it in that first pic 'cause there are too many boards in the way, but there’s a big old desk with filing drawers, a nice old receiver and 5 disk CD player, desktop machine set up with wireless antenna to a Linksys router upstairs feeding off a cable modem, I made a big air filter leading to dual case fans reversed to pressurize the computer case so it doesn’t fill up with dust, there’s an exhaust fan set up the far window so I can pull a slight vacuum in the basement and use polyester resin without the fumes going upstairs to the whole house (I know, I know… my boards are epoxy, but the boards I work on aren’t), the fridge holds plenty, and there’s heat! There’s a small air compressor, shop vac, flex shaft die grinder with foot speed control, 5" Makita variable speed DA sander, Harbor Freight variable speed polisher, couple of fire extinguishers, big thermometer and clock on the wall, lots of lighting, several boxes of stuff from Fiberglass Supply, and there’s some shelving and more storage space around the corner.

It’s nice place to spend time, when the door outside looks like this:

The local boating supply stores wanted, get this, $90 for a 2 quart pour foam kit. I was like, um, yeah… I guess I’ll be using a few layers of fiberglass over that resin and microballoon filler. :slight_smile:

I should have ordered some when I put in my last order at Fiberglass Supply. Shipping was just over $30 for a couple rolls of 'glass and a box of S929 and S249A with quarts of milled fibers, cabosil, etc. There was enough room in one of those boxes for another two quart containers. Ah, well…

I try to order a couple different kinds of glass every time I put an order in, since they have so many kinds. This time I got a few yards of 9.7 ounce flat weave to use on the decks of rescue boards where they’re always falling apart from knee paddlers. I like it. The weave’s just open enough that it’s easy to get the air out, and it just looks nice when it’s done. I’d tried some 9.0 ounce 8HS weave before, and the weave was so tight I was chasing these huge bubbles around under the cloth all the way out the sides.

Patrick

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Anyone use the pour foam on EPS?  I let my epoxy resin heat up, and then like a dummy, poured it onto an SUP lam layer.  It ate into the blank to about 1.5-2" deep on one side on the bottom.  And if it does work with EPS, how much pour foam should I get to fill a hole with varying depths and about 5-8" wide from tail to nose?  Will a 2 qt kit be enough?

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Havn't read all the comments. Gorrilla type glue works great as a filler for holes and gaps, don't know about smearing it over an area. It's density is much superior to lame Great Stuff blow can foam also has much less bubble voids, the System 3 glue is almost void free. It sands excellent, doesn't care what kind of blank foam it comes in contact with, bonds great, but is that ugly amber color. You can fill any voids in the glue/foam with a micro balloon mix and if you get creative could sand the amber foam down below grade then cover it back up to grade with white micro

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I’m not too concerned with the color as I’ll paint over all the gnarl which is and will be produced to clean up the mess.  But I’m concerned the deep holes will take a lot of any glue and that’s why I’m thinking something which will fill in the holes better such as the 2 part pour foam.  Can I epoxy over acrylic paint or am I better off painting the hotcoat as the last step to ensure a good bond and no delam in the future?

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rout a clean square bottom hole

shape a foam piece to fit snuf

dot the inside with g glue

slip the plug snug into the hole

tape it down

sand fair when it goes off

do not put lotsa glue

make a few pressure bleed off 

vents along the length so excess glue can release

 

alternative,just paint in a little epoxy

and put in snug fit piece

leaving the surface glue line free

will make the sanding fair easier

fo not use too much resin or glue  

that will make or break the fair true surface

deck delams are the biggest heartbreak

repair. Lotsa work  often short of perfection.

…ambrose…

 

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Thanks Ambrose!  I think replacing the foam as you suggest is the best solution to my challenge, and most cost effective!

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Patrick,

Where are you located?  East Coast?  I could send you a "big chunk" of foam by USPS.  We trade broken boards to a guy here for resin that does "Fish Art".  I have lots of big pieces laying around.  Could just wrap it in brown paper and shoot it to you.  Shipping shouldn't be more than a few bucks and will be on me.

Dave_D 

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Dave_D, that’d be too cool!!!  Thanks so much!  I’m in Florida in the Tampa Bay area.  I’ll PM you my address.